On Boxing Day I was queuing most of the day to get on the Lush website to no avail. I don’t know if you have ever tried to get online for the Lush Boxing Day sale, but it is a complete nightmare and any time I made it onto the website, none of the pages would actually load for me. So I got fed up with it and went searching online for an alternative. I came across lots of ‘DIY bath bomb’ pages – I don’t really have the patience for things like that. And then I came across, Bomb Cosmetics. The reviews seemed mixed to good, the products looked VERY similar to Lush and they were slightly cheaper.

So I placed a fairly large order and have been eagerly awaiting it’s arrival to do an unboxing! It came yesterday.. well some of it did. Part way through the unboxing, it became clear that I have only received box 1 of 2 in my delivery. So I have done part one of the unboxing video and part two will follow when the courier finally locates my other package.

What better way to kick off my new blog with my New Year’s resolutions?! I love making these every year as it’s the perfect time to take a step back and reassess.

I don’t think any of my resolutions have the ability to make me think I’ve failed and give up altogether if I don’t do a specific thing EVERY DAY. They’re hopefully just going to help me create better habits overall.

So here is my list:
1. Read a new book every week – or 52 books in a year. I’ll say now that I’m not expecting to achieve this, but I figure if I manage say 30 books and set myself the same challenge next year and read 35, well then I’m improving.
2. Eat more healthy, home cooked food – I mean specifically, to go through my massive collection of recipe books and start using them as part of our regular meal plan.

3. Declutter – I’m doing a decluttering challenge so on 1st month I got rid of 1 item, on 2nd I got rid of 2 etc and start again next month. By ‘get rid of’, I mean give to charity, give to a friend, sell or throw away.

4. No-Spend January – we are cutting out all nonessential purchases.

5. Stick to a budget app – I’ve given myself a budget for different categories for everything we need to spend in a month (groceries, gifts, kids activities, clothes etc) and I’m tracking all the transactions into an app to try and stick to a budget better. This is the app I am using and really like – https://appsto.re/gb/BwZSG.i

6. Develop and stick to a household cleaning routine – I am aiming for a different ‘zone’ each day of the week and just do that one room on the same day each week and then stop. So Mondays – lounge, Tuesdays – hall, stairs and landing etc. I will also need a list of the jobs that need doing every day like putting a load of washing on, wiping round the bathroom etc.

7. Organise my capsule wardrobe for SS17 – I did do this for AW16 and it worked well, but has gotten out of control. I’m going to start getting some inspiration and planning my capsule for when No-Spend January is over!

8. Morning and bedtime routines – I simply need a routine that will get us all up and out the house without being late/anyone forgetting anything/shouting/tears etc. I also need one that’s going to get me into bed and asleep for a reasonable time as I’m just not getting enough sleep.

9. Print and organise our photos – we have thousands stored digitally that are never looked at! So a bit at a time, I’m going to go through them, get the best ones developed and put them in albums, so that we can actually look at them!

10. Go to the gym regularly – I am pretty good at this but I want to go a bit more and really start working hard for summer now! Eek!

So those are mine, I’ll keep you posted with how I’m getting on with them. Let me know what yours are, I’d love to read them!